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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Vatican City, 18 November 2015 (VIS) –
As we approach the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis dedicated the
catechesis of today's Wednesday general audience to the meaning of
the “Holy Door”, which he will open on 8 December in St. Peter's
Basilica. This great door is that of God's mercy, which welcomes our
repentance and offers us the grace of forgiveness; a door which is
opened generously but whose threshold must be crossed with courage.

Francis referred to the recent Synod of
Bishops, “which gave all families and all the Church as strong
impetus to meet at the threshold of this open door. The Church was
encouraged to open her doors, to go forth with the Lord towards His
sons and daughters who walk together, at times uncertain, at times
lost, in these difficult times. Christian families, in particular,
have been encouraged to open the door to the Lord Who waits to enter,
bringing His blessing. But the Lord never forces the door; He asks
permission to enter through ours, although His doors are always
open”.

“There are still places in the world
where doors are not locked, but there are also many where reinforced
doors have become normal. We must not accept the idea of having to
apply this system to our whole life, to life within the family, in
the city, in society, and far less so in the life of the Church. …
An inhospitable Church, like a family closed in on itself, mortifies
the Gospel and makes the world arid. No more reinforced doors in the
Church!” he exclaimed.

“The symbolic management of doors –
thresholds, passages, frontiers – has become crucial. The door must
protect, certainly, but not repudiate. The door must not be forced:
on the contrary, it is necessary to ask permission to enter, as
hospitality shines in the freedom of welcome, and darkens in the
arrogance of invasion. The door is opened frequently, to see if there
is anyone waiting outside, who perhaps does not have the courage or
even the strength to knock. How many people no longer trust … to
knock on the door of our Christian heart, at the doors of our
Churches. … We have lost their trust; please, we must not let this
happen. The door says many things about the house, and also the
Church”.

“We ourselves are the guardians and
servants of the Door of God, Who is Jesus”, affirmed Francis.
“Jesus is the door that lets us enter and leave. Because God's
flock is a refuge, not a prison. … We must pass by the door and
listen to Jesus' voice; if we hear His tone of voice, we are safe and
sound. … If the guardian hears the voice of the Shepherd, then he
opens, and he lets in all the sheep that the Shepherd brings, all of
them, including those lost in the woods, that the Good Shepherd has
gone to find. The sheep are not chosen by the guardian, but rather by
the Good Shepherd. The guardian too obeys the voice of the Shepherd.
The Church is the door to the house of the Lord but she is not the
proprietor of the house of the Lord”.

The Pope concluded his catechesis by
reiterating that the Holy Family of Nazareth knew well what was meant
by an open or closed door for someone awaiting the birth of a child,
for those who do not have shelter, and for those who must flee
danger. May Christian families make the threshold of their home a
little sign of the great Door of God's mercy and welcome. It is
precisely in this way that the Church must be recognised, in every
corner of the earth, “as the guardian of a God Who knocks to enter,
with the welcome of a God Who does not close the door in your face
with the excuse that you do not belong to the household”.

“With this spirit”, he concluded,
“we approach the Jubilee: there will be the Holy Door, but it is
the door of God's great mercy. There will also be the door of our
heart, to receive all God's forgiveness and to give ours in turn,
welcoming all those who knock on our door”.

Vatican City, 18 November 2015 (VIS) –
After today's catechesis the Pope recalled that Thursday 20 November
will be the Universal Children's Day. “It is a duty of all to
protect children and to place their well-being before any other
criterion, so that they are never subjected to forms of servitude or
mistreatment”, he said. “I hope that the international community
may keep careful watch over the living conditions of children,
especially where they are at risk of recruitment by armed groups, and
may help families guarantee to every boy and girl the right to
schooling and education”.

He also mentioned that on 21 November
the Church commemorates the Presentation of Mary in the Temple and
therefore asks the grace of the gift of the vocation of men and women
who, in monasteries and hermitages, have dedicated their lives to
God. So that cloistered communities may fulfil their important
mission, in prayer and in active silence, let us ensure they do not
lack our spiritual and material closeness”.

Francis cordially welcomed pilgrims
from Poland, especially the representatives of the Independent
Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarnosc”. “For thirty-five
years your union has been engaged in the world of work, both physical
and intellectual, as well as in the protection of the fundamental
rights of the person and society. Be faithful to this commitment, so
that political or economic interests do not prevail over the values
that constitute the essence of human solidarity. I entrust you and
all the members of the Union to the protection of your patron,
Blessed Don Jerzy Popieluszko, and I impart to you my heartfelt
blessing”.

Vatican City, 18 November 2015 (VIS) –
The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff has
published the following calendar of liturgical celebrations at which
the Holy Father will preside in the months of December 2015 and
January 2016:

DECEMBER

Tuesday 8: Solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter's
Basilica, Holy Mass and opening of the Holy Door.

Tuesday 8: Solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At 4 p.m. in Piazza di Spagna,
veneration of the image of Mary Immaculate.

Vatican City, 18 November 2015 (VIS) –
Yesterday afternoon at 6.30 p.m. the ceremony was held for the
“Recognitio” of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. After a
prayer, the cardinal archpriest Angelo Comastri, who led the
procession of the Basilica Chapter, and the admonition of the Master
of Ceremonies, four workers broke down the wall sealing the Holy Door
inside the Basilica, extracting the metal chest held since the moment
of closing the door during the Great Jubilee of the year 2000 and
containing the “documents” of the last Holy Year, including the
key to the Holy Door, the handles, the parchments, the paving stones
and commemorative medals.

After praying at the Altar of
Confession, the procession reached the chapter house where the metal
chest extracted from the door was opened using a blowtorch, in the
presence of the Master of liturgical ceremonies of His Holiness,
Msgr. Guido Marini, who took delivery of the documents and the
objects of the “Recognitio”, and Archbishop Rino Fisichella,
president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation.

On Monday 16 November the same ceremony
was held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, and it will take place
tomorrow in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and on Monday 23 November
in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls.

- accepted the resignation from the
pastoral care of the archdiocese of Feira de Santana, Brazil,
presented by Archbishop Itamar Vian, O.F.M. Cap., upon reaching the
age limit. He is succeeded by Msgr. Zanoni Demettino Castro,
coadjutor archbishop of the same archdiocese.

- appointed Bishop Juan Antonio
Menendez Fernandez, auxiliary of Oviedo, Spain, as bishop of Astorga
(area 11,535, population 262,741, Catholics 253,178, priests 214,
religious 293), Spain. He succeeds Bishop Camilo Lorenzo Iglesias,
whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon
reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

- appointed Bishop Manfred Scheuer of
Innsbruck, Austria, as bishop of Linz (area 8,261, population
307,500, Catholics 224,800, priests 52, permanent deacons 13,
religious 49), Austria. He succeeds Bishop Ludwig Schwarz, S.D.B.,
whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon
reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

- appointed Msgr. Nelio Domingos Zortea
as bishop of Jatai, (area 38,997, population 598,000, Catholics
488,000, priests 38, permanent deacons 14, religious 79), Brazil. The
bishop-elect was born in Irai, Brazil in 1963 and was ordained a
priest in 1995. He has served in a number of pastoral roles,
including bursar and rector of the minor seminary, member of the
Presbytery and director of an interdiocesan centre of theology. He is
currently parish priest in the Cathedral of the same diocese.